A “domain name” refers to a name of a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control on the Internet. Domain names, which may also be referred to as “domains” herein, are formed by the rules and procedures of a hierarchical decentralized naming system referred to as the Domain Name System (DNS).
The hierarchical DNS is organized into zones of authority. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that manages the top-level development and architecture of the Internet domain name space. Each domain name has one or more parts that are technically referred to as labels. The domain name hierarchy descends from the right label to the left label, delimited by dots, such that the right-most label in a domain name denotes the top-level domain (TLD). For example, the domain name “www.company.com” belongs to the top-level domain “.com,” “company” is a subdomain of “.com” (and hence a second-level domain name) and “www” is a subdomain of “company.com” (and hence a third-level domain name).
Any individual or entity may register a domain name with a registrar. However, such a domain name registration does not confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only an exclusive right of use for a particular duration of time. The use of domain names in commerce may subject them to trademark law. For example, trademark dilution is a trademark law concept giving the owner of a famous trademark standing to forbid others from using that mark in a way that would lessen its uniqueness.
Today's Internet technologies, including domain name registration processes, DNS servers, and browser applications, do not provide famous brand name owners with sufficient brand/domain protection on the Internet. Consequently, there is room for technical innovations and improvements.